Ai no Tsubasa
by eremiticAntiquarian
Summary: HIATUS. Sequel to Bakemono Ai. Naruto departs with Jiraiya to train with the promise of being able to go to Sunagakure at least once during their trip. GaaNaru, NaruGaa
1. One Week, One Day

At the time of writing the first chapter of the sequel to Bakemono Ai, the original has exactly 38,576 words, 14 chapters, 125 reviews, 27,852 hits (and growing), is a member of 14 C2s, and has been made a fav and currently being watched by 72 people. I plan to top that with this sequel dattebayo! Of course, I'll need all my readers' help. So, this is dedicated to all of you who have reviewed, watched, read, and added Bakemono Ai to your favorites. On to the story:

**Ai no Tsubasa**

_Chapter 1: One Week, One Day_

Uzumaki Naruto quickly learned a week after he and Jiraiya left Konohagakure that he could multi-task very well. In fact, the perverted old man actually told him that he admired the way he could spin his chakra and concentrate on nothing other than that "fire-haired raccoon boy from Sunagakure." This, of course, led to Naruto realizing he could do three things at once, for he started blushing furiously and couldn't stop for the rest of the day. It worsened when Jiraiya made his hands into rings and held them up to his eyes and made a poor attempt to talk like Gaara. So yes indeed, Naruto could multi-task very well.

It wasn't long into their journey before the Legendary ninja decided to make camp outside a small village that was known for its beautiful but easy girls, flowing hot sake, and dirty gambling on every street corner and sometimes in between. Needless to say, Naruto wasn't allowed to go there unless it was daylight and he only went down the market street. Naruto huffed at that and pondered why the old pervert would even think that he'd _want_ to go there. Sake didn't stay in his system long because of the Kyuubi, not to mention they wouldn't even serve it to him because of his age. Even if he won anything gambling, Ero-sennin would just steal it all and use it for things Naruto would deny approval. Girls, he'd learned, just weren't his kind of thing. With a second thought, neither were boys.

The fox boy was well known for his determination and one-track mind set to his goals. He wanted to be Hokage, he wanted recognition, and he wanted Gaara. And he'd rather be _dead_ than not have it all.

Naruto decided that in order to obtain any of those, he'd have to stop imaging Tanuki and hearts and gourds in the clouds and start working on sealing off the training dummy's chakra. Jiraiya created a scarecrow that had a chakra system which glowed a faint blue where it flowed, stuck it in the ground just outside of the camp and demanded the impossible of his student. Naruto had to make a seal that he had never even seen before and only a short sentence description of what it did and looked like. It seals chakra and in a circular pattern.

In his head, Naruto screamed, "Aren't all seals circular!"

Ero-sennin apparently didn't realize that he didn't have the Byakugan or an immense medical knowledge. Naruto didn't know where the seals should be placed in order specifically block the flow of chakra to one area of the body. He couldn't help but completely stop the flow of all the chakra in the scarecrow. At least he was getting really good at removing the fuuinjutsu that he created by himself. Jiraiya had said that the seal was already deep inside his blood and he already knew how to create it. He had also told Naruto that screwing up with it over and over again would eventually bring it to the surface. That only furthered Naruto's frustration. The constant failure was killing him.

Not to mention he hadn't ate anything since dawn and it was well past sunset. The forest was so dark without a fire, the blond boy hadn't seen a tree, much less his feet, in hours. All he could see was his hands, and the dummy right in front of him.

"All right, this is my last try for tonight. That means I gotta get it right so I can see Gaara sooner," Naruto yelled to no one but himself.

Naruto made one last series of hand signs that he thought was correct. His hands moved through the twenty signs in a blink of an eye. While that wasn't so spectacular for a ninja, he was still wearing the five pound each wrist weights that Lee had given him to train with. Though, it may be time to up the weight. The entire chakra flow stopped again as he pressed his right hand's index finger to the dummy and a small black seal appeared. It was a four-point shape with loops for corners and made a diamond shape in the center. Naruto sighed deeply as the dummy's glow vanished completely. With a quick motion, the seal he had placed was gone. Naruto turned away from the scarecrow in defeat and trudged back to camp.

Naruto looked towards the pit with twigs and a couple logs in the middle of camp, waiting to be lit. A series of quick hand signs and in an instant fire shot out of his finger tips towards the pre-constructed fire pit as he was still walking towards it. The twigs ignited and the fire was soon blazing and warm. Naruto had used the technique Jiraiya taught him the first night they made camp. It was the only katon jutsu that he knew, and Jiraiya promised that it was the only one that he'd ever need or ever teach him. According to the old geezer, the Kyuubi's chakra could burn opponents if he really needed it to. He also promised to teach him to control it that well.

Naruto walked to the fire with a pot of water from a nearby stream. In his sack, he found a cup of instant ramen complimentary of Ichiraku. One of the 10 he brought with him, he didn't think they'd be gone long enough for him to get a serious craving for their ramen. And even then, from his last trip with Jiraiya, he knew that there were plenty of good ones scattered about the continent. He opened his cup and sat in silence, waiting for the whistle of the water. He tried to think of what he was doing wrong with the fuuinjutsu but nothing came to him. It probably didn't help that his mind kept wandering to Gaara and how much he missed him after only a week. Still, it was a week since he last looked into those endless green eyes. Since he touched that cool, pale skin. Since he ran his hands through red, silky strands of hair. Since he felt the warmth and coldness of the desert radiate off of Gaara and into his soul. Naruto sighed.

"Oh… Gaara…"

SCREEEECH!

The water had come to a boil. Slowly, Naruto stood with his open cup, ignoring the sounds of animals scattering from the trees around him. He carefully filled his cup of dry ramen with the hot water and decided to add on a cup of green tea. Then, Naruto began the treacherous journey back to the log upon which he was sitting. One minute, the blond was looking to the log where he was headed. The next, he was staring at a spider skittering across the ground mere centimeters from his face. He could feel the hot water from the tea and ramen begin soaking into his orange sleeves. The Konohagakure genin scrambled to his feet as the spider was washed away by the near boiling liquid. Naruto glared at the root beneath his feet, and maybe, just maybe it sunk lower into the ground. He knew it wasn't the poor root's fault that he tripped and that he should get his head out of the clouds, but his pride wanted to blame the root anyway. He walked down to the stream, minding his step, and proceeded to put another kettle of water on the fire.

He just couldn't seem to get the sand-wielding boy out of his head. Gaara's face almost haunted Naruto in every place he looked. The clouds, the stream, the trees, the fire, the stars. Hell, even his ramen formed Gaara's round face within his cup. Naruto stirred with his chopsticks to make it disappear, but only succeeded in writing the kanji of 'ai' instead of mere twirling.

His training wasn't going anywhere. Expect maybe the fact that he could expertly remove seals from a training dummy that where placed there by none other than himself. Jiraiya refused to help him, much to his dismay. He missed Gaara more than he could bear. He wasted a cup of precious Ichiraku brand instant ramen. And he was pretty damn sure that the direction Ero-sennin was taking them was opposite of the way to Sunagakure. Naruto felt bloody miserable, and he didn't even have anyone to share it with. He just wanted to talk to Gaara somehow.

Naruto his two empty cups down. He then pushed himself backwards off the log that was starting be become uncomfortable. With his head and back on the ground, Naruto gazed up at the stars. He knew Gaara could see these same stars, and took comfort in that fact. He connected the astral bodies to find pictures within them. Gaara's gourd. A bowl of hot Ichiraku ramen. A Konoha leaf. Kakashi-sensei's face. He just kept drawing the lines between the stars and connecting them. He was amazed at all he could find.

Connecting.

That was it.

All of the chakra in a body was connected. He didn't need to find the "right spot" to hit. A seal was a seal, no matter where it was placed on the dummy. It didn't depend on injuring a spot to stop the flow like Neji's techniques, only a simple seal. The fuuinjutsu had to be created to specifically target the area, not be placed on a specific area. It had to be given the order to stop the flow of chakra to a certain area or else it simply wouldn't work.

Naruto was about to get up to try, but the thought of using only more of his chakra without rest nearly put him to sleep on the spot. He slowly sat up and rummaged though his belongings to find his sleeping pad, a writing pad, and a thin marker. The blond rolled out his sleeping bag next to the fire. He knew that bring the paper along was a good idea because now, it provided him with the comfort of writing a letter to Gaara. Naruto wasn't sure if there was a bird carrier in the small town that would take his letter to Sunagakure, but there was no harm in being prepared when he did find one. He tapped the butt of the marker against his whisker marks as he stared at the blank paper in front of him. He didn't know exactly where to start the letter. Should he tell Gaara of everything that's happened? Should he summarize? Would a long letter or a short letter be better? How could he explain in words how much he missed that damned raccoon boy already?

---------------

Gaara,

A lot has happened in a week. It's mainly me missing you, but Jiraiya took me on another training trip. And get this, he promised me that I'll get to go to Sunagakure AT LEAST once. Can you believe that? I'm excited to see you again. Let's start from the beginning.

Ero-sennin taught me a katon technique to light camp fires. It is pretty useful, no matter how perverted that old geezer is. After that, he began building a training dummy for me and worked on it every night when we camped. He told me that I had to compile a mental list of all the seals that I have ever saw used and then try and write their names down, or at least draw them with a description. Sadly, the only seals that I've seen are the one on me, the one on you, the one on Sasuke from Orochimaru, and the one that the Third Hokage performed and it ate his soul. None of those I want to perform or remove anytime soon. Then, the pervert told me to think of ones that I haven't seen that are waiting deep in my mind. I found one. It was so cool. Ero-sennin actually recognized it! So, he started doing weird things to that dummy he was making. And the next day we found a village to camp outside of at the same time that he finally finished whatever it was. So now, he's stuck me out here. Trying to make the seal work right. I can seal off all the chakra in the dummy but he wants to me seal off only certain areas, like the flow of chakra to an arm.

I thought it was impossible, and only a Hyuuga could do it. But tonight, looking at the stars, and thinking of you, I figured it out! Ain't I cool? It's all thanks to you, too. I owe credit for the idea to you and the stars.

Hey… Did I mention that I miss you? And I want to see you?

I'm not sure if the town I'm in has a bird carrier, but if it does, I'll wait here until I get a reply from you. I won't let Ero-sennin know that I figured out how to do it just yet.

Hope to hear from you soon.

I love you. I miss you.

Uzumaki Naruto

---------------

Naruto shut his writing pad and tucked it under his pillow. He rolled over and looked up at the stars through the clearing in the trees. The flicker of low flames from the fire that was once burning so bright danced among the leaves of the trees that framed his view of the celestial bodies that also twinkled above Gaara's head. Naruto smiled as he made out the shape of a tanuki among the stars.

"Gaara… I love you," Naruto whispered at the stars, relying on them to carry his message across countries.

The exhausted boy drifted off to sleep with thoughts of his beloved. He never realized that there were three sets of eyes watching him from the dark forest. They hid when they heard loud footsteps of a tall, old, drunken pervert headed the way of the camp.

Jiraiya checked on the training dummy to find that Naruto hadn't completed his task. He, too, rolled out a sleeping bag. He flopped down to the grown with a loud thud and kicked off his red geta. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he was out and snoring. Naruto didn't mind because he was already far off in his dream world of being Hokage and having Gaara by his side for the rest of their demon-possessed lives. Naruto rolled over in his sleep and sighed happily.

The three pairs of eyes were back. Slowly, they crept forward as the light of the fire dimmed more and more.


	2. One Week, Two Days

**Ai no Tsubasa**

_Chapter 1: One Week, Two Days_

When Naruto woke, it seemed like just another day. That is, until he rolled over. From under him, a soft, high-pitched yelp met his ears. Beneath him lie three baby foxes. The kits looked up at Naruto with big, black, pleading eyes. Quickly, Naruto stood up in his sleeping bag and hopped to the other side of the now dead fire. The foxes mewed quietly and moved their tiny little legs to follow him.

Suddenly, a white fluff ball wearing red geta dropped down from a nearby tree and taunted Naruto.

"Mama-Naruto has a brand new pack of kits to love and nurture. And here I thought you were a boy, brat."

"Shut your mouth, Ero-sennin! Can't you see that they want to eat me?

The tiny animals then proceeded to rub against his legs. Jiraiya broke into a fit of laughter as the blonde's face became a very bright shade of red. The kits whimpered when Naruto began shouting profanities at his teacher. This only caused the laughter from Jiraiya to echo through the trees. The tall man's resounding voice seemed to shake the forest and small animals scurried away in all directions.

Naruto growled and stomped off toward the small village. The kits ran and played behind him the entire way. Naruto occasionally glanced back at the animals and tried not to let them see him do it. However, every time he'd look they would yip at him happily and quicken their pace.

The first thing he did when he reached town was find a good restaurant with good ramen. Much to his pleasure, the owner made it clear that no pets were allowed and that the foxes would have to wait outside if he wanted to eat there. And oh boy, he wanted to eat there. It made Naruto all the hungrier to know that they couldn't follow him in. He quickly sat down and ordered the biggest bowl of pork ramen this guy offered.

"Oi, old man," Naruto called around a mouthful of noodles. "Is there a bird carrier service in this dump? I need to send a letter to someone in Wind Country."

The owner looked up from his paper and responded, "Yeah, yeah. It's just down the street. Something to Wind is gonna cost you something pretty, though."

Naruto clutched the folded letter in his pocket with joy. He smiled with as much energy as he could muster and his voice clearly showed his elation when he spoke next.

"That's--!"

Naruto was cut off by a ruckus that suddenly appeared around the doorway. It was made by a tall, burly man with muscles to spare. By the way he spoke, it seemed to Naruto that he was a few blows to the head short of stupid. Other men got up from the once quiet setting to follow Mr. Burly outside so they could all "gather around and see his trophies." It was painfully obvious to Naruto that this guy didn't win a baking contest.

With suspicion, Naruto tipped his bowl and downed the rest of his ramen. He tossed a few coins on the counter and thanked the old man who owned the joint, who now had his feet up on a stool and the newspaper covering his face. Then, Naruto followed the crowd out the door.

The doors shut behind Naruto, and for him, the world stopped. His stomach turned and he felt the ramen rising. There stood Mr. Burly holding up four huge animal hides with dozens more in the small pull cart next to him. Naruto stared at one hide in particular that rested on the top of the stack. A fox fur. The face, sans skull, still attached to the body. There was an unmistakable five-point star pattern on the fox's nose. It was the same pattern shared by all three kits.

The same kits that were standing on their hind legs trying to get to their mother whose scent was present. Her scent and the scent of death made them whimper with sadness. For the first time, Naruto wasn't annoyed by the little brats. Instead, he felt a strong urge to protect them welling up in his chest.

"And this one," Mr. Burly said picking up the mother's hide, "was a little devil. I had to chase her from her den for over two miles just to get her."

"You bastard! Didn't you think that she was protecting her children?"

The crowd parted to reveal an irate young blond boy who looked no older than twelve. His shoulders heaved as he growled lowly and glared at the hunter. The crowd of rough men who gathered there took one look at Naruto's small stature and burst out laughing. The kits whimpered even louder, drawing the hunter's and Naruto's attention. Mr. Burly looked down at them and grinned.

"Those would make nice additions to my trophy collection. I'd have a matching set."

"Shut the hell up!" Naruto yelled.

The men all laughed and taunted.

Mr. Burly guffawed, "Are you some sort of nature freak? Do you think you're their new mommy with those whiskers on your cheeks?"

"You don't know who you're messing with, kid."

"Iwato can break you in half with only a fraction of his strength!"

"You better start running now!"

The hunter, now known as Iwato, suddenly changed his deep rolling laughter to a surprised yelp as three sets of teeth sank into his ankles. Naruto took that as a cue to being the assault against Mr. Burly. He crouched on all fours and used his back legs to launch him at his enemy, like he had seen Kiba do.

Unexpectedly, Iwato caught Naruto in mid-air with bear-like hands and swung the boy hard into the ground. Naruto was caught breathless but quickly made his way to his feet. He shook the gravel out of his orange jacket and pants. He put his hands on his hips and huffed.

"Is that all you've got," Naruto asked, while taking a glance to the kits cowering under the cart. "I've taken worse hits from a snake freak twice as old as you!"

Naruto laughed triumphantly. Iwato growled fiercely. His eyes glistened with feral anger. Seeming without thinking, he lunged low at Naruto. He skidded to a halt when Naruto jumped into the air. The man grabbed at his blue sandal-covered ankle and slammed Naruto face first into the gravel street. The blond boy grimaced at the impact, but stood up smiling, even though he was coughing up pieces of the road.

By this time, a crowd had gathered to watch their resident tough guy beating a pre-teen boy so bad that any full grown man would have been dead minutes ago. They were amazed that the loud mouthed brat could take so much damage and not even have a single scratch or bruise to show for it. Iwato had become completely enraged. He was about to unleash his special technique that not even the villagers had seen. Only rumors circulated about how it could take down any animal without him even touching it. However, it was unlucky for him that Naruto could see the inexperienced man attempting to gather up chakra for a jutsu.

Naruto had yet to lay a finger on his opponent. He stood and smirked as Iwato grimaced to gather chakra with his poorly formed hand seals.

"I'll make you a bet," Naruto laughed.

"What's that," Mr. Burly grunted.

"I bet that whatever it is that you're concocting up won't stand up to me AND that I'll knock you back over twenty meters with just this one fist of mine while you're trying to kill me with your jutsu."

Iwato growled at the suggestion. Naruto laughed. He thought to himself that his must have been the same scenario that Tsunade-baachan saw when he had charged her with a half-assed Rasengan. Just as Mr. Burly reached within range, Naruto pushed a sphere of chakra out around him. Iwato hit it like a wall and stopped in his tracks. Very much like the Godaime Hokage, Naruto punched my man in his forehead and sent him flying backwards, digging a trench as he went. The crowd was silent as their town hero didn't move.

A loud voice broke the silence.

"You lost, brat. That's only nineteen point nine three meters, not twenty."

"Shut up, you old pervert, before I kick your ass, too."

"Get out of here, kid. You can't even touch me, and we both know it," Jiraiya chuckled. "Now, stop causing a ruckus and go back to being a good little student at the camp."

Naruto raised a finger at Jiraiya that held a heavy connotation. He walked in the direction of Iwato, and further, the carrier service that the restaurant owner had pointed out. Naruto could see a clay base of soil at the point where Naruto had stopped. That's what made him slow and stop before twenty meters. There was a lesson even in that. He kicked some gravel in Mr. Burly's direction, causing him to curl into a fetal position and sob.

Naruto's walk was uneventful. He coughed when he accidentally kicked dirt up in front of himself. With the cloud cleared, so had the crowd. A path was made for him to walk down the busy market street. Children hid behind their mothers. It was like being back in Konoha all over again. Naruto almost felt like he was at home.

Three fox kits were the only ones who were afraid of him. And to Naruto's dismay, they were following him again. This time, Naruto refused to glance back at them. In his mind, he had gotten revenge for them, but they didn't owe his anything in return. However, he couldn't shoo them away because he knew that there wasn't anywhere else for them to go without a mother and an angry hunter who wanted them as trophies.

Naruto turned into the carrier office. The smell was deadly to a well-trained and adapted nose like that of the one possessed by the Kyuubi. He attempted not to breath, but failed. Naruto noticed that the kits waited outside, not daring to come into a place that smelled only of bird feces. The blond boy coughed out the breath of air he was holding in. He began choking and propped himself up on the reception desk. The short, round man behind the counter raised an eyebrow and laughed.

Naruto nodded and pulled the letter to Gaara from his pocket and slammed it on the desk. He continued coughing as the man examined the letter and the addressee.

"Sunagakure. Subaku no Gaara. This'll get there in less than 24 hours with my birds," the owner replied.

Naruto open gama-chan and set the rate, plus a few extra coins on the desk. He quickly backed out of the small office and to the doorway where fresh air came in. He gasped in the new air.

"The extra is to send a messenger to track me down when Subaku no Gaara sends a reply."

The man at the desk nodded and Naruto waved and he ran from the smell.

Mission Accomplished, he thought to himself. He sent the letter and had some tasty ramen, not to mention a fun fight. He was ready to go back to camp, say screw it to training, and just sleep the rest of the evening away. Hell, the sun was already setting. Jiraiya would scold him and tell him that he needed to train more. But since Naruto already knew how to solve his training problem, he just needed to pass time and wait for Gaara's reply.

Across the continent, Gaara had already received one reply to a letter he had sent a few days ago. In his office, Gaara re-read the letter from the Godaime Hokage. It sent waves of sadness to his heart.

"Kazekage-sama," it read. "It is my deepest apologies to inform you that Uzumaki Naruto is no longer in this village. He has gone for private lessons from Jiraiya. The estimated time of his arrival back to our village was stated to be two and one half years. I'm sorry that he did not inform you of this himself, but he left almost as soon as you did.

On a second note, if you would still like to visit Konohagakure on Kage business, you are more that welcome. Please let us know if you want to and we will make all the arrangements necessary."

And it was signed by Tsunade, herself.

The question weighing on Gaara's mind was why Naruto hadn't told him or wrote to him yet to tell him where he was. Wouldn't Naruto want to visit him on his journey?


	3. One Week, Five Days

**Ai no Tsubasa**

_Chapter 1: One Week, Four Days_

It is hard to let go of habits that have been prominent since birth. Some people bite their nails without even thinking about it. Some people have a set routine for each morning that messing it up would ruin their whole day. For some, these old habits really die hard. In Gaara's case, he doesn't sleep.

Naruto sealed his demon. Shukaku won't emerge if he ever closes his eyes again. He trusts the work that Naruto did. Gaara has no doubts. Yet, he just can't allow himself to close his eyes.

First of all, Gaara didn't even own a bed. Since he never slept, he didn't need anything to sleep on. After he got back to Sunagakure, one thing led to another and he never found the time to buy a simple bed. In fact, his days were so busy that not sleeping actually worked in his favor.

Secondly, he wanted to be awake if or when news of Naruto's location became available. Gaara supposed that the excuse of not having a bed was just that, an excuse. He could just as easily fall asleep on the couch in his office. However, it wasn't as though he was forcing himself to stay awake. It was an old habit. And for a certain red-haired jinchuuriki, his old habits really died hard.

It was very early in the morning and Gaara was sitting on top of the Kazekage's office building. He looked very much like a stone statue staring off into the distance. In the still of darkness, Gaara's sensitive ears could hear the ANBU posted around the village fidgeting in their places. They knew that the sun would soon be rising and they could go back to their sand huts to sleep. The mornings in Suna were always signaled by noisy ANBU, tired from an overnight shift, leaving their posts and breaking the silence by returning to the Kazekage to be dismissed for the day. If the residents were sleeping, they'd never even know. However, Gaara has only really slept once in the past 10 years, and that was with Naruto.

The sun broke the horizon.

In a single instant the 10 ANBU that were stationed around Suna surrounded Gaara. The red-head broke his statue pose and nodded once to the masked figures standing around him. The elite ninja went to their private changing room and slowly left the Kazekage's office complex and inconspicuously, and most importantly, individually.

Sunagakure used to be very short on ANBU for most of Gaara's memories. The past ANBU had been sent by his father to assassinate him and Gaara slaughtered them instead. After a dozen had added their blood to Gaara's sand, it was very hard to get anyone to join the elite group other than those who were full of themselves and decided that in joining they would prove themselves to be the best. They too added their blood to the sand that Gaara carried with him in a gourd.

When Gaara returned to Sunagakure with Shukaku sealed, 27 ANBU were hired. It was a number equal to the number that Gaara had killed over the years. A total of 35 ANBU were now employed in Sunagakure. 10 for each shift, and 5 for missions. The village once again found itself well protected.

Overall, everyone thought the new Kazekage was doing a wonderful job in his position. Gaara was quite honored to earn that much respect from the people of the ninja village hidden in the sand.

Gaara stood. His silhouette against the dawn lacking the menacing aura of Shukaku and the usual gourd removed from his back.

He was required to be in his office from dawn to dusk to take care of village matters. He hopped off the roof and onto a ledge. In the Kazekage's office, changes had already taken place. The screen that hid his father from guests was removed. Gaara found it impolite. It was replaced with a low table and cushions for himself and visitors to sit on. In the corner of the room leaned a gourd full of sand, proof that Gaara had taken over. It was there for as much as a threat to those who would act against him and also a symbol of his power to protect the people that he served.

Kankuro was first pick for Kazekage and it was offered to him the second they arrived back at their village. The Village Hidden in the Sand was shocked when the puppeteer refused the position. Everyone believed that Kankuro would be a perfect leader. The elders quickly made their way to other candidates for Kazekage. To the elder's surprise and frustration, they all refused claiming that they were not the strongest in the village and were not suited for the position as leader. By law, the strongest ninja in the village, of any rank, should hold the title.

The villagers were in dismay at not having a Kazekage and started to take it out on the elders for not yet getting a new leader for Suna. They were finally forced to ask the true strongest ninja in Sunagakure. The elder's couldn't believe it when Gaara politely accepted the new status and promised that he would do the best that he could.

Shukaku's vessel started by corresponding with the other Kages for advice. He the implemented a rule that all the ninja who passed up the title of Kazekage were extremely relieved to hear. In his first week in office, Gaara made it illegal to experiment on human beings, whether it be turning them into puppets (something Kankuro agreed with) or inserting demons into people (which everyone agreed with), or anything of the sort. It was illegal.

His next action was hiring ANBU. Replacing those who were lost. Replenishing Sunagakure's elite defenses. No one could argue against that, nor did anyone not agree with the move.

The third was the best. Because Gaara didn't sleep, he was able to reformat the education system in the training academy in just one and a half days. It was the best academy in all the hidden villages. To top that, all the Kage agreed that it really was the perfect way to teach the young and old, as genin, chuunin, and jounin were also required to return to the academy to learn even more. Tsunade, the Godaime Hokage herself, had called the idea "brilliant."

In less than his first week as Kazekage, Gaara had done more for Sunagakure than his father ever had.

Now, Gaara was handing out missions to the ninjas of the village. It was the same thing that he had been doing each morning. Those who showed up after the missions were gone were required to spend the day in the academy doing research on a topic that would be assigned by one of the teacher there. Those research topics would be studied by multiple ninja of the same level at different times and all the results published for the whole community to read.

None had been published yet, but the results of one topic in particular that was in the laboratory testing phase were much anticipated. The topic being weather control, or how to get water in the village in the dry season and prevent floods in the rainy season. The jounin working on it hoped to earn special recognition that might nominate them to get a genin team or make them eligible to become ANBU.

Kankuro and Temari were both working on a genin project between jobs that focused on sending short messages with a jutsu over a given distance. They believed they could make it silent and nearly motionless. Whether their experiment fails or succeeds, the completion of it gains them entrance into the next chuunin exams. Gaara decided that even though he is Kazekage, he would still enter as he is also just a genin.

Gaara's method of continued learning will lead to smarter, more powerful, and better experienced ninja who can think their way out of life threatening situations instead of fight their way out. Lives should not be wasted, says the new Kazekage. That is the message Gaara wants to send as the new leader of Sunagakure to his people and to the rest of the Hidden Villages.

The respect that Gaara earned would suffocate a normal person. Yet, he kept working hard for the village and those who lived there, who worked there, and who fought for Sunagakure.

However, even with all the work that he was constantly doing, Gaara still had time to lose himself in thoughts of Naruto.

Naruto, who saved him in so many way. Gaara used to be selfish and sadistic. He trusted no one but himself. He can vividly remember the days of nothing but bloodshed.

Naruto had changed him so much. Even though he didn't really trust people yet, Naruto taught him that pain led to self betterment. Letting people in wasn't a bad thing. Caring for others actually made a person stronger than if that person were just fighting for himself. He had to allow himself to feel the bad things if he ever really wanted to feel alive and have something to look forward to in life. Naruto gave him emotions.

Now, Gaara finds out that Naruto has left the hidden village of Konoha to go training with that frog hermit. He was proud that Naruto could get trained by on the legendary three. However, Gaara didn't trust Jiraiya. The Fifth Hokage had returned Gaara's letter saying that Naruto had left the same day that he had. Naruto had promised to visit him as soon as he could. Perhaps, Gaara thought, Naruto was on his way now to see him. However, it has been nearly two weeks and the scouts had not sent word of anyone from Fire Country crossing the border into Wind Country at all.

Because of this, Gaara did something that he had never done before.

Moped.

Baki noticed this right away. Gaara's eyes trailed away from assigning missions with worry. Even though he wasn't really the red-head's jounin-sensei any longer, he still tried to guide Gaara when his direction was lost. Old habits die hard, and all that rot.

Baki laughed silently watching Gaara mentally pace his office before opening his mouth to speak.

"Kazekage-sama," he interrupted Gaara's thoughts. "What is it that is troubling you?"

Gaara was actually startled, "Baki-sensei…"

"Out with it. Why are you acting this way?"

"Nothing really," Gaara lied. "Just worried about today's academy graduation. I wonder how many new genin will emerge only knowing the old ways of Suna's teachings and none of my new ideas."

"None," Baki laughed.

"What do you mean?"

"That's what Tatsuna Seiki just came and told us, but you were lost in other thoughts. No student that was eligible to take the examinations today came to the academy. We won't get a new batch of genin this time, but I suppose that this is good news. The students and their families want to learn in your style, Kazekage-sama," Baki smiled while handing out a scroll to a jounin-sensei and his three genin.

Gaara nearly smiled.

Gaara found himself out of missions to hand out to genins. He searched his table for more scrolls but found none. All the missions left were two A class missions that could be sent to the ANBU if no one else wanted to claim them. As if sensing that the genin missions were gone, a familiar pair traipsed into Gaara's office.

"Kazekage-sama," the girl shrilled with fake sweetness.

"We're here for a mission, Kazekage-sama," said the older boy with phony charm.

In an instant, the cork popped off of Gaara's gourd and sand came rushing into the air. The girl and boy and Baki all tensed up. Gaara stood. The sand formed two hands that rushed towards the pair of mischievous genin. Then they swooped down on them, and whacked them across their heads.

"Ow-owowow!" The boy cried. "Bad Kazekage-sama. I'm not giving you puppet shows anymore."

"That was mean, little-brother-Kazekage-sama," The girl swore.

"Stop being annoying," Gaara muttered. "You're late on purpose. Go to the academy like you want. And stop calling me that. It sounds ridiculous coming from your mouths, not to mention it reminds me of Father when the two of you say it.

Temari's and Kankuro's eyes widened. The air in the room stood still. There was a hushed silence that no one dared to break. Baki sat back down in disbelief, knowing what would come next as they were his team.

"You mean we still get to work on our project." Temari and Kankuro shouted simultaneously.

With a hoot, they left the room. Baki and Gaara hung their heads.

Just as he was about to get up and send the remaining scrolls off to the elite team upstairs, Gaara was stopped in his tracks by a masked ANBU appearing in front of the door to his office. In his hands he carried a scroll that had talons poked into it. The cat-masked ninja said nothing and held the scroll up. It was obvious that it was an important message sent by bird to get to Gaara.

It was addressed to Gaara, not the Kazekage, in chicken scratch that he recognized as Naruto's handwriting. It took all he had in him to not uncharacteristically squeal like a lovesick little girl out of joy. He did the best he could to keep his smile and happiness inside and didn't even crack a smile. However, Baki could see in his former student's eyes just how excited and relieved Gaara was to receive that letter.

Gaara excused himself out the window and rode an elevator of sand up to the roof of his office to read the letter in private.

Alone, Gaara let himself smile as he opened the scroll and read the contents.


End file.
